E-mail list etiquette

[Guest guest]

E-mail Etiquette

 

I've been meaning to send another reminder on this subject. Janaki's

email reminded me now is a good time!

 

There are a lot of people on this list, with varying interests. One

thing we should all do is make sure the subject line reflects the

actual subject of the email. This way, people not interested in

certain topics may skip them. Similarly, those they are interested

in, they may read. When the topic of a line of emails has changed, if

the subject line remains the same, it misleads the reader. Please

keep your subject line consistent with your email.

 

Of all our members, some get individual emails, some read their

emails on our website, and many receive the " daily digest. " For

the former two methods, the extra text contained on an email, from

the previous email, may not have a big impact, but for those on the

daily digest, all the text remaining from previous emails must be

scrolled through to get to the next message. This can be frustrating

for those on the daily digest when members hit " reply " without

editing the previous text. When hitting " reply, " please delete all

unnecessary text from previous emails. Retain only those lines from

the previous email that are necessary for understanding your

comments. Often, just the subject line is needed for this. If your

email program does not allow you to edit the replied text, consider

drafting a new email and paste appropriate text from the email you

are replying to.

 

While our list is set up for raw vegan food discussion, including

discussions of the planning of events in the North West, on rare

occasions members have slightly off-topic email they wish to share.

When posting an off-topic email the subject line should begin with

" OT - " , and should contain a specific subject relating to the email.

We still do not allow spam, but understand there are events in the

community that a majority of our members may be interested in.

 

Sometimes emails are posted to the list asking for replies. If the

reply is actually intended for the individual and not the list, then

if you hit " reply " you must delete the list's email address and

replace it with the individual(s) address.

 

If you are sending an email asking for replies to you and not the

list, then add a line in your text to " reply to " followed by your

email address. Even better, put something like " Please respond to me

personally " then put " " followed by your email address (ex:

jeff). This allows people to double click on the

hyperlink, which automatically creates a new email to that email

address!

 

A lot of people find this email list interesting and the messages of

value. By following some basic etiquette, we can maximize the value

by making the information easier to find, the unwanted topics easy to

skip, and all the unwanted text and duplication (especially, the

duplicated ads) non existent! This should help keep everyone

happy. I've been on lists before where I was on daily digest and all

these things were magnified. When everyone took the time to follow

such etiquette, it made the reading/scanning of the emails much more

of a pleasure.

 

Regarding spam, you may have noticed an absence of spam in recent

months! Your list moderators have been diligently trying to prevent

people intent on spamming us from sending such inappropriate emails

to this list. It takes an extra effort, but is ohhh so nice to not

have to read, on this list, about viagra, porn sites, or my

favorite... " How to lose weight! " .

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Jeff

 

PS: Did I miss anything?

 

 

>I notice a lot of the time messages that are only between two people

>get sent through the group that could be sent to a specific person.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Here are some additional thoughts I received.

 

Jeff

 

 

>PS: Did I miss anything?

 

A couple subjects left out that I think are important to address are

group replies of one line " Thank you " s and coordination/requests

between two parties. If someone wants to thank the sender of an

email for something, it should be done privately, off list (such as

direct email to sender). Also, when two parties are coordinating

something such as purchasing or picking up items, all coordination

and purchase requests should be done privately, off list. Of course,

announcements of bulk purchases and information on the products is

fine.

{The recent Coconut Oil thread was an example of these.]